MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow told Rolling Stone magazine that in order to better understand the historical moment with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, “I’ve been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor.”
Rolling Stone’s Andy Green asked Maddow, “Are you disappointed in your country for making Trump one of the two major-party nominees for president?”
“I am fascinated in my country,” Maddow replied laughing. “There’s no mystery about Trump. I mean, there’s a little mystery as to why he wanted to do this. Have you seen those frustration moments for him on the trail: ‘I had a good life. Why am I doing this?'”
“What is amazing is the Republican Party that picked him,” Maddow said. “They had 330 million people to choose from, and they’ve decided that he is the best one to be the standard-bearer of one of the two major parties of the greatest nation on Earth. Like, talk to me, Republican voters! What’s the worst-case scenario for America if he wins? It can be pretty bad. You don’t have to go back far in history to get to almost apocalyptic scenarios.”
Green followed up, “Is part of you worried we’re living through the first few chapters of some dystopian science fiction novel?”
“Over the past year I’ve been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor,” Maddow said. “I am gravitating toward moments in history for subliminal reference in terms of cultures that have unexpectedly veered into dark places, because I think that’s possibly where we are.”